Wednesday, 5 November 2014

Game Fourteen: Habs vs. Sabres

Montreal 2, Buffalo 1 (SO)

Um, okay. We barely, and I say, just barely, come out of Buffalo with two points. The Habs retain top spot in the Eastern Conference, even though, amazingly, they have given up eight (8!!) more goals this season than they've scored. Gravity continues to be defied.So some dreary news and notes:- Michael Bournival, as we kind of suspected by his reaction, is out with a separated shoulder. 4-6 weeks. Which means more - much, much, much more of Rene Bourque.

- Read above again. What a bummer.

Overtime:

- Even with open overtime ice, Habs can't get anything in order, running into each other.

- Gorges nearly scores on a seemingly harmless wrist shot. Yeah, that would have been something else.

- Sekac with a clear cut hit from behind and he's given just 2 minutes. Ted Nolan is, for good reason, displeased.

- Stafford gets Buffalo just their second powerplay goal of the year, off the Sekac boarding penalty. Serves Sekac right.

- The mystery of playing Emelin on the PK just never ends. Why, why, why, why, why?

- He might have committed a terrible penalty, but Sekac with a wonderful pass to Eller directly in front of the Sabres' goal. Nearly 2-1 because of that.

- Both teams very sloppy in their own zone, countless turnovers. Kind of amazing only two goals have been scored.

- The hockey gods are cruel tonight. Five more minutes to endure.

Second Period:

- One of the most boring games I've ever seen. Nothing to blog about. Except to say, this is beyond terrible hockey.

- Canadiens might actually be playing worse tonight than they were last night (second half of the game). This team has nothing going, no coordination, zero. It's as though the players have stopped trying for their coach?

- Therrien had put out, and this is true - Malhotra (okay), Weise (following so far) and Pacioretty (uh ...what?).

- 20 shots. Total. Not just for one team. For the game. That's one shot every two minutes. Good grief.

- 40 minutes done. I literally have nothing to observe, except that we're watching the two worst teams in the NHL play a nothing game. I can hardly wait for this to be over. 20 more minutes of torture.

First Period:

- So Sekac finally gets another start. Again, it's rather inane that it requires a mini-team crisis to get him some ice time.

- Prust drops the gloves, another pointless unproductive fight.

- Pacioretty gets two minutes for making a check. Same old same old.

- Well, the Habs can take some satisfaction that at least one other team has a worse looking powerplay than they do.

- Fourteen games into the season and Canadiens have scored zero extra man goals on the road. That's crazy bad. Among other problems, nobody shooting from the line seems capable of getting much of anything on goal.

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Habs Game Blog is a one-person operation, - the word "operation" should be interpreted as loosely as possible. I started following the Habs, in a most rabid fashion, in 1977, when the team was pretty much unstoppable. Much, alas, has changed - in particular this franchise's "lean" years 1995-2007. Fortunately, the team started headed in the right direction a few years ago, and in response, I started this blog in 2011 in anticipation that the Canadiens would soon be Championship competitive. Habs Game Blog is entirely a pastime passion, although I'm not above (or below) freelancing. Please enjoy this blog, and as always, proceed with caution.